Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- GlaxoSmithKline Plc said the lung
drug Anoro, a follow-up medicine to its best-selling Advair, was
recommended for approval by Europe’s drug regulator.

Anoro was recommended by the European Medicines Agency as a
once-daily treatment to relieve symptoms in adult patients with
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the London-based company
said in a statement today. The drug was approved in the U.S. in
December.

Anoro may help Glaxo protect its respiratory business,
which made up 42 percent of its total pharmaceutical sales last
year. The company’s top-selling product, Advair for smokers’
cough and asthma, is facing increasing competition from a newly
approved generic in Europe and cheaper options in the U.S. Glaxo
also won approval last year for Breo, a separate drug for COPD.

Anoro, a once-daily dry powder inhaler, may generate $1.25
billion in sales in 2016, according to the average of seven
analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. COPD is a disease
often caused by smoking, that makes it difficult to breathe.

Anoro will compete with Novartis AG’s Ultibro Breezhaler,
which works in a similar way. Novartis has also been winning
approval for AirFluSal, a generic form of Advair, since December
in European markets such as Germany and Denmark through a
decentralized country-by-country process.

COPD kills a person every 10 seconds and will become the
third leading cause of death worldwide by 2030, according to the
World Health Organization and Glaxo. Conditions known as chronic
bronchitis and emphysema are both included in the COPD
diagnosis. While asthma affects more people globally, it doesn’t
kill on the scale of COPD, according to the WHO.

The market for COPD medicines may rise to $14 billion in
2018 from $10 billion this year, Citigroup Inc. analysts
estimate. Including asthma, the respiratory market will total
more than $30 billion, according to Bloomberg Industries.